THEATTORNEYGENERAL 

OF’ TEXAS R4 944 

Aunm~. TEXAS 787ll 

May 23, 1975 

The Honorable Forrest Smith 

Chairman 

Texas Youth Council 

Sam Houston State Office Building 

201 East 14th Street 

Austin, Texas 78701 

Dear Chairman Smith: 

Opinion No. H- 615 

Re: Whether various public 

agencies may disseminate 

information on juveniles to a 

private data bank. 

You have requested our opinion regarding whether various public 

agencies may disseminate information on juveniles to a private data bank. 

Pursuant to this request, you submit for our inspection an “Automated 

Interagency Information Management System Memorandum of Agreement, ” 

whereby a number of public entities in Dallas County propose to become 

“sponsors” of an Automated Interagency Information Management System 

(hereinafter referred to as AIIMS), whose purpose is to “provide information 

to facilitate research, planning and outreach programs directed at reducing 

and preventing juvenile delinquency in the community of West Dallas. ” 

“Overall fiscal and administrative management” will be performed by a 

private agency known as Common Concern until June 30, 1975, when 

these responsibilities will be assumed by a “Steering Committee” composed 

of the representatives of the parties to the agreement and “associated 

agencies, institutions and interested parties. ” The original sponsors, in 

addition to Common Concern, include the Dallas Police Department, the 

Dallas Independent School District, the Dallas Juvenile Courts Division, 

and the Urban Planning Department of the City of Dallas. 

Under the terms of the Agreement, each sponsor will provide 

information on juveniles to AIIMS, including both individual and aggregate 

data. As to the individual data, the Agreement provides: 

All information shall be classified and maintained 

in the data bank in such a manner that any individual 

can neither be identified nor traced nor profiled by 

any reasonable person. 

p. 2725 
The Honorable Forrest Smith - Page 2 (H-615) 

The Dallas Police Department agrees to provide information 

regarding each arrest made of a juvenile in the target area, including 

race, sex, place of birth, date of birth, and a variety of other data 

relating to the juvenile’s arrest and. the ultimate disposition of his case. 

The individual’s name is not supplied, but his file is tagged with an 

“identification number” for the internal use of the Police Department. His 

current address is furnished only as a “Mapsco code number. ” 

The Dallas Independent School District will submit information about 

each student enrolled in a school in the target area, including name of 

school, as well as the juvenile’s race, sex, place of birth, date of birth, 

and other data relating to school performance and family background. Again, 

the individual’s name is omitted, but his file contains an “identification 

number” used by the School District. His current address is represented 

only as a “Mapsco code number. ” 

The Dallas County Juvenile Courts Division is to furnish information as to race, sex, place of birth, date of birth, and a variety of other 

data regarding the referral of an individual to the juvenile courts division, 

including any involvement with drugs. The juvenile’s name is not supplied, 

but his file is tagged with a “county identification number” for the internal 

use of the ,Juvenile Courts Division. 

The Urban Planning Department of the City of Dallas will furnish 

“relevant demographic data concerning the target area. ” In addition to 

the information regarding individual juveniles, the School District and the 

Juvenile Courts Division also agree to submit data in aggregate form. 

Section 51.14 of the Family Code provides, in pertinent part: 

(a) All files and records of a juvenile court, a clerk 

of court, or a prosecuting attorney relating to a child 

who is a party to a proceeding under this title are open 

to inspection only by: 

(1) the judge, probation officers, and professional 

staff or consultants of the juvenile court; 

(2) an attorney for a party to the proceeding; 

(3) a public or private agency or institution 

providing supervision of the child by arrangement of 

the juvenile court, or having custody of the child under 

juvenile court order; or 

p. 2726 
The Honorable Forrest Smith - Page 3 (~-615) 

(4) with leave of juvenile court, any other person, 

agency, or institution having a legitimate interest in the 

proceeding or in the work of the court. 

. . . 

(c) Law-enforcement files and records concerning a 

child shall be kept separate from files and records of arrests 

of adults and shall be maintained on a local basis only and 

not sent to a central state or federal depository. 

(d) Except for files and records relating to a charge for 

which a child is transferred under Section 54.02 of this 

code to a criminal court for prosecution, the lawenforcement files and records are not open to public 

inspection nor may their contents be disclosed to the 

public, but inspection of the files and records is permitted 

by: 

(1) a juvenile court having the child before it in any 

proceeding; 

(2) an attorney for a party to the proceeding; and 

(3) law-enforcement officers when necessary for the 

discharge of their official duties. 

Section 51.14 sets strictly circumscribed limits to the authority of a 

juvenile court or a law enforcement agency to permit access of the files and 

records of individual juveniles. As we recently held in Attorney General 

Opinion No. H-529 (1975): 

Section 51.14 is designed to preserve the traditional 

confidentiality of files and records concerning juvenile 

proceedings. . . . However, general statistical data 

which provides no real opportunity for identification of 

the juvenile offender in no way threatens such confidentiality. We therefore construe the language “records”, 

“relating to child” or “concerning a child” as contained 

in section 51.14 to include only those records which furnish 

a basis for the identification of the child. 

p. 2727 
The Honorable Forrest Smith - Page 4 (H-615) 

We have been advised that individual AIIMS sponsors will not be 

granted access to any information in the data bank regarding particular 

juveniles. Only “general statistical data, which provides no real opportunity for the .identification of the juvenile offender, ” will be available 

to the sponsors. Thus, the AIIMS Agreement appears to meet that 

standard of confidentiality which we held in Opinion No. H-529 to be 

required of juvenile courts and law enforcement agencies by section 51.14. 

A similar standard of confidentiality is required of school districts 

receiving federal funds by the Family Educational and Privacy Rights Act, 

20 U.S. C. § 1232g, which prohibits “the release of personally identifiable 

records or files (or personal information contained therein) of students 

without the written consent of their parent% ” It is thus our opinion that 

the Dallas Police Department, the Dallas Independent School District, 

and the Dallas County Juvenile Courts Division may each furnish to AIIMS 

the information contemplated under the Agreement, so long as such data, 

whether considered separately or collectively, does not provide a basis 

for the identification of any individual juvenile. 

SUMMARY 

The Dallas Police Department, the Dallas Independent 

School District, and the Dallas County Juvenile Courts 

Division may disseminate particular information on 

juveniles to a private data bank so long as the information 

does not reasonably furnish the basis for the identification 

of individual juveniles. 

/Y 

ery truly yours, 

Attorney General of Texas 

r-APPROVED: 

Opinion Committee 

jwb 

p. 2728